Mah Jong
Living with the threat of Coronavirus!
Contact: Christine Hogben 02392 255827 if you would like to join us or for information about the group. Until we get completely back to normal contact Margaret Stanger 02392 619152 for information about the meetings.
The current lockdown means that we cannot meet indoors at 2pm each Tuesday. We are hoping to restart when the Government and Third Age Trust rules for face to face meetings allow. We have been meeting by Skype but the sound and picture is unsatisfactory, and we have not all got the hang of Zoom yet. On Tuesdays I am compromising with a Skype meeting from 2 to 2.30 and a Zoom meeting from 2.30 to 3pm. I will send invitations by email just before 2 on Tuesdays.
Traditional Mah Jong is an ancient Chinese strategy game. It is played with bamboo Mah Jong tiles, and was introduced to the rest of the world in the early 20th century. In traditional Mah Jong, there are usually four players and 144 Mah Jong tiles, based on Chinese characters and symbols. Each player begins with 13 tiles and takes turns drawing and discarding tiles until they form a winning hand.
Imagine you were dealt the hand of the week, top right with the most recent date. What would you make it into, and if it was goulash, which tiles would you swap first? What tiles would you hope for? Anyone who emails me with a suggestion will have it published here next week.
The last hand, second down on the right, was interesting as people often see different patterns in the same set of tiles. I saw it as the beginnings of an ordinary Mah Jong hand or the more fanciful Green Jade with its bamboos and green dragons- three tiles away from a winning Green Jade hand. Barbara Westlake saw it as pairs, she is quite correct as it is only two tiles away from a winning pairs hand.
Alternatively you could play the online strategic matching game, via the link to Mah Jong Solitaire, top right. You must remove all Mah Jong tiles from the board before time runs out. There’s a catch, though! You can only select unblocked Mah Jong tiles that do not have other tiles to their right or left. It’s a race against time – the faster you go, the more points you score!